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How do I improve my native language? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| IowaHawkeye Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5888 days ago 42 posts - 42 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 1 of 13 06 May 2009 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hello.
I feel that I'm quite intellectual and can understand advanced texts in English. However, when I write something formally, such as essay answers or admissions letters, I find it difficult to write in a manner that conveys my actual intellectual comprehension of a subject. How does one enhance the quality of one's native language ability? How can I acquire a much more vast active vocabulary? Edited by IowaHawkeye on 06 May 2009 at 7:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| JBI Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 5697 days ago 46 posts - 67 votes  Speaks: Modern Hebrew, English* Studies: Italian, Mandarin, French | Message 2 of 13 06 May 2009 at 7:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Read - especially essays. Read texts starting from the beginning, and just keep reading, and write down words you don't understand or keep going, but by the time you read enough (after 200 or so books, assuming they aren't Dan Brown) you'll have a stronger vocabulary. Then, when it comes to stylistics, I find the best things to read that really build a sense and a feel for things is literary criticism - and I don't mean popular reader's digest stuff, but academic stuff. If you read that, you'll learn to comment on anything.
Also, watching a lot of Shakespeare can help, and a lot of Jane Austen movies, and perhaps other old movies. But really, reading academic, or literary works is the best way. Also, reading poetry helps, but only if you take the time to understand how things work. Take something like this, Milton's opening to Paradise Lost: Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man 5Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed In the beginning how the heavens and earth 10Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed Fast by the oracle of God, I thence Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song, That with no middle flight intends to soar 15Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. and sit down, and parse the grammar, and see how things fit together. Notice how the Subject and main verb, "Sing Heavenly Muse", in an anastrophic state, come in the middle, whereas subordinate clauses, mostly relative ones dominate everything before that? What you want to do is look at it, and understand what the effect of all this has on the way the argument is presented, and how it shapes the meaning of the text. Than finally, you want to understand how you can take these techniques, such as this reliance on relative clauses, and apply them to your own work. You do realize, also, that the passage I quoted is one sentence. Edited by JBI on 06 May 2009 at 7:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Dark_Sunshine Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5771 days ago 340 posts - 357 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 3 of 13 06 May 2009 at 8:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'd agree with the above. The best way to improve your academic writing is to read lots and lots of academic journals in whatever your field is -and bear in mind that the definition of 'good academic writing' can vary according to the discipline.
If you become familiar with the style and register, you will feel more comfortable and proficient in employing it yourself. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5844 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 4 of 13 07 May 2009 at 1:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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This is a very good and sensible question.
People who can't speak their own language well aren't likely to be able to become good at any other language either. Unless it's urgent for them to learn a foreign language they might to best to improve their skills in their native language first, If you are confident about the grammar of your own language and have a good vocabulary, you've got a good foundation on which to build your "house" meaning foreign languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6040 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 5 of 13 07 May 2009 at 4:04am | IP Logged | |||||
I feel that too ;p.
Reading a lot should do the trick... I don't know a better way of enriching one's vocabulary than reading. It doesn't matter if it's your native language or not, you can't beat reading ;p. Edited by Sennin on 07 May 2009 at 4:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| TheMonster Newbie United States Joined 5734 days ago 20 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 6 of 13 07 May 2009 at 11:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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You're going to Iowa? Sry but off topic. I just had to say I'm going there next year.
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| Tezza Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5684 days ago 41 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 7 of 13 09 May 2009 at 1:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If you want a wider vocabulary then I can't recommend Charles Harrington Elster's "Verbal Advantage" course highly enough. It is 24 CDs long and contains rare/slightly over the top words and also explains the rules of correct English very well. For example: one CD of it contains the words:
Jejune, Paucity, Minatory, Putative, Lucubration, Troglodite, Aleatory. Words which you might never come across or want to use in day to day life, but for writing and wanting to sound like you know what you're talking about then it should be helpful. The only advice I'd give is try not to use too many words like this at once, since that will seem kind of 'pretentious' which is probably the word I hate the most. Edited by Tezza on 09 May 2009 at 1:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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